Misfiring DeMbare Strikers Pose Challenges For Ndiraya
27 October 2021
Spread the love


DYNAMOS coach Tonderai Ndiraya is worried by his misfiring strikers as they prepare for a tricky Chibuku Super Cup quarter-final clash against Black Rhinos on Sunday.

The Harare giants went unbeaten in Group 1 of the competition as they cruised to the last eight of the competition.

Their defence conceded only two goals in the 10 group stage matches, which were both own goals by Emmanuel Jalai in the two games against Caps United.

While former Manchester United coach Sir Alex Ferguson once claimed that defence “win you titles,” Ndiraya is demanding his front men to be ruthless in front of goal if the team is to win the Chibuku Super Cup title this year.

DeMbare’s five-man strikeforce of Tinashe Makanda, Albert Eonde, Newman Sianchali, David Temwanjira and young Luke Musikiri have contributed only two of the 12 goals that the club has scored in the tournament.

Both were scored by Eonde in the matches against Herentals and Yadah.

“The way we have defended is what we want to see,” Ndiraya said.

“But I’m not happy about the creative and scoring part of the team. The creativity is not really there. We are not taking advantage of the talent that we have and of the strengths that we have in the team. We need to look for someone who can really give us that final pass.”

“We need to be consistent in terms of goalscoring. We have relied too much on our midfielders to score. Our strikers have not been consistent and we hope that they can improve and change things and apply a smash and grab mentality.”

Young Bill Antonio, who plays as a winger and midfield workhorse Shadreck Nyahwa have also scored two goals for DeMbare this season.

Ndiraya is happy with how his team has performed in the tournament so far, but says all that good work could be rendered inconsequential if the team loses against Rhinos.

“It would be sad that we have done very well so far in the tournament and fail to progress beyond the quarterfinals.”

He rested the bulk of his starters including Nyahwa, Patson Jaure, Juan Mutudza, Trevor Mavhunga and Godknows Murwira in the Sunday match against Harare City.

He claimed that some of them were a yellow card away from suspension, so he didn’t want to expose them to possible suspension in the Rhinos clash.

“We expect a very tough match, but we will have all our players in place, a huge pool of players to select the best team for that game. So, we are looking forward to it,” Ndiraya said.

“We have done really well in this tournament and I’m hoping that we can shift our focus and our mind going into the quarter-finals. We are playing one of our biggest rivals and they are also our bogey side in Black Rhinos. So, we have to prepare mentally and physically for the match so that we go through to the next round.

“The mentality has to change in the way we approach the game. There has to be a winner on the day. In the group stages, you would drop points and not really worry about it but this time around we have to get a win. How we will get the result is something else, but we have to approach that game with a very different mentality from the way we played the 10 group matches. That is a huge job to do, to train the players psychologically so that we get the mentality that we need for this game.”

Chibuku Super Cup quarterfinal fixtures (All matches to be played at Baobab Stadium)

Saturday: Chicken Inn v Ngezi Platinum Stars (11am), FC Platinum v Highlanders (3pm)

Sunday: Cranborne
Bullets v Harare City (11am), Dynamos v Black Rhinos (3pm)- NewsDay

Tonderai Ndiraya